This large flat tablet was part of an Assyrian cuneiform book consisting of a series of such tablets. This flood story (§ 155) tells how the hero, Ut-napishtim, built a great ship and thus survived a terrible flood, in which all his countrymen perished. Each of these clay-tablet books, collected in fresh copies by Assurbanipal for his library (§ 226), bore his “bookmark” just like a book in a modern library. To prevent anyone else from taking the book, or writing his name on it, the Assyrian king’s bookmark contained the following warning: “Whosoever shall carry off this tablet, or shall inscribe his name upon it side by side with mine own, may Assur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and may they destroy his name and posterity in the land”